Waterfalls || Yeonbin

chapter 27: time

August 10, 1940

"Soobin?" Yeonjun called out, making me pick my head up from my plate.

"Yes?" I asked, curious as to what he was reading. He had the newspaper in front of him, and he must've found an interesting story other than the war.

"Do you know Park Sunghoon?"

I scrunched my eyebrows, "As in, the figure skater? Didn't he win two gold medals last Olympics?"

Yeonjun folded the newspaper, putting it down on the table for me to see. He pointed to a certain headline, "Doesn't look like he'll be competing anymore."

I was extremely confused, hurrying to look to where his finger was pointing. I widened my eyes at the headline: 2x Gold Medal Figure Skater Park Sunghoon Fleas Korea

I quickly grabbed the newspaper, reading the article as fast as possible. My breath kept hitching at the words on the page, shocked with the intricacy of the story itself. I mean, it must be a crazy story in order for it to be in the paper during a war. It says he was having relations with a foreigner, a man from Australia. It doesn't give much detail about the Australian, but apparently, they were around the same age and people saw them together a lot.

I knew homosexuality wasn't illegal in Korea like it is here, but that doesn't mean it's accepted in society. They got caught by a staff member at an ice rink, who then turned them in to the authorities as sexual harassment. Both of them fled after Sunghoon was released from the team and the day before their court hearing... And that was over a month ago. I rolled my eyes at the end, the journalist giving a number to call if anyone has any information on them. They're just kids for crying out loud.

"My, God..." I trailed off, my mouth going dry as I thought about what they've had to go through. It made me think of us. Always looking over our shoulder in case someone is watching us.

"Let's just be extra careful, alright?..." Yeonjun softly said, reaching out to hold my hand, "We never know what's going to happen."

I nodded, "I will."

. . . . . . . . . .

My colleagues and I are working straight through lunch break in order to finish this machine. Even though we don't have an official deadline, we know that it must be coming up soon. I feel like nine months has gone by in the blink of an eye and I barely even got the chance to comprehend what's happened throughout the time I've been here. We had every window open and the front doors open, blazing heat in the middle of summer. The sweat covering my body was suffocating, needing to take a five-minute break.

I stepped outside; the air circulation out here is much better than our little shed. I could feel the sun on my skin as I leaned my back on the open door, bringing a hand up to massage my neck. My hair was wet with sweat, knowing we all must be drenched at this point. I turned my head when I heard someone yelling, watching Commander Denniston storm out of their office building.

I scrunched my eyebrows, seeing Yeonjun get in front of him and a bunch of other military personnel following behind him. Yeonjun looked like he was pleading for him to stop, but the Commander wasn't having any of it. I realized what was happening when the Commander pushed Yeonjun away, staring directly at me as he stomped over to our shed.

My eyes widened, hurrying to close the doors so he couldn't come inside. I hurried to look around, grabbing a broom in the corner to latch the doors shut, "What're you doing? It's an oven in here." I heard John say behind me.

I turned around, seeing everyone confusedly looking at me, "They're going to shut us down."

It was still for a moment, nobody able to respond before we heard pounding on the door. I flinched, moving closer to the machine and the rest of my colleagues as we heard muffled voices outside. I released a breath when it was quite for a few seconds, but then someone hit the door like they were trying to get through.